“To idealize—one must understand what he is idealizing,” figurative artist Thomas Eakins said, “otherwise his idealization—I don’t like the word—becomes distortion, and distortion is ugliness.” Eakins work deemed unromanticized body beautiful. His dedication to realism seemingly bloomed from a desire to draft the body as it presently is. As I learn figuration, desire and idealization hijack my work often. I long to craft realistically like Eakins—a tricky yet worthwhile feat.